


My Paper Heart

by superblooper



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: (screw that book don't read it), F/M, Gen, Origami Flowers, Pre-Relationship, Secret Admirer, and a cameo of Into the Wild
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-20
Updated: 2013-06-23
Packaged: 2017-12-15 13:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/850011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superblooper/pseuds/superblooper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>for her beautiful traught headcanons. bless.</p>
<p>the book artemis and bette read is called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_(book)">Into the Wild</a>. i hated that book. ask me about it sometime because i had to write an essay explaining why. :)))))) too long since i've written a cohesive piece of fic. the next part should be up soon, too, aw yeah.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [animegoil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/animegoil/gifts).



> for her beautiful traught headcanons. bless.
> 
> the book artemis and bette read is called [Into the Wild](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_\(book\)). i hated that book. ask me about it sometime because i had to write an essay explaining why. :)))))) too long since i've written a cohesive piece of fic. the next part should be up soon, too, aw yeah.

“So, I guess that means Alex Supertramp met his unwitting end because of moss poisoning,” Artemis dropped the book dispassionately back into her bag. “Thus concludes that stupid book. Thank God.”

“Aw,” Bette tucked her own copy back into her own bookbag. “You mean you weren’t positively enchanted by Christopher’s idealistic view of the world and brash personality?”

“No. Reminds me too much of some jerkoff I know.” His name was Wally West. “But hey, sounds like you’ve got our essay pretty much wrapped up.” Bette laughed, leaning forward to sift through her binders and notebooks for their prompt. And Artemis, to her credit, kept a lid on expanding on how _much_ she disliked Chris McCandless.

At least she had Bette as a study buddy. She would’ve preferred Barbara, since that girl breezed through every assignment ever handed to her, but unfortunately she was in a different class. Advanced Placement. Go figure. Still, Bette was pretty cool. Artemis watched the other girl tug out a piece of paper while she picked at a fraying thread of her mattress.

Normally, Artemis would be so not okay with any of her Gucci-toting Gotham Academy school “friends” anywhere within five miles of their apartment complex. Mom hadn’t really given her an option. When Paula found out Artemis had been assigned a partner in English, she had insisted that Artemis bring her classmate over.

Bette had taken in their shabby home with polite interest, but Artemis was sure a fresh wave of “charity case” syndrome would sweep through the school on Monday. Artemis wasn’t bullied, per se. She was, in fact, subject to her classmates pitying looks. Or worse, they’d try to cover the brand name labels on their bags or offer to lend her a Kate Spade dress. Like she wanted all that stuffy rich kid junk.

“Hey, I didn't know you did origami?”

Artemis looked up. “Huh?”

Bette’s smile was teasing. “Origami? _Paper folding,_ Artemis. Didn't your ancestors teach you anything?” Artemis had to resist the temptation to roll her eyes. Not in a fond way. Bette was still on Artemis’s watch list. Everyone at the Academy was. Bette, a little more than others, by virtue of being pretty and popular. Artemis might not know the words to “Bah Bah Black Sheep”, but she knew enough about preppy prep school dynamics from a few episodes of Gossip Girl.

“Origami is Japanese. I’m Vietnamese,” she replied absently, holding out her hand. Bette obliged, dropping a bright blue paper flower into her palm. The long neck created by the petals reminded her of a daffodil. It wasn’t too shabby, not at all. Not fancy or intricate, but complex enough to make Artemis hesitate to toss it.

“Well, okay.” She could almost feel the awkward radiating from Bette’s side of the bed. But she ignored her partner. There was something written on the sides of the petals. She squinted.

_**You’re awesome.** _

“So, obviously, Chris was a little bit headstrong.” Bette’s pencil scratched quietly against the pages of her notebook. “But I also wrote down that he was ‘determined, devoted, and driven.’ That sound okay?”

Wrenching her eyes from the neat cursive, Artemis nodded, a little absently. “Sure. Even if they all mean the same thing.” Her eyes magnetized back to the paper flower, tracing the pressed lines of the petals. “Hold on though, you found this _where_ exactly?”

Frowning slightly, Bette pointed. “The sill. I just figured you put it there to ward off bad luck or...” She caught Artemis’s expression and continued on smoothly, “maybe you had a hidden soft side. Silly me.”

“Right, what _ever_ you thinking?” Artemis batted her eyes, flapping her hand, making Bette snicker. “Next you’ll be saying I rescue abandoned puppies in my free time. The _nerve!”_

Bette gave Artemis an appraising look, not that Artemis cared. Then the other girl tapped the end of her pencil on her notebook. “I could talk about your secret life all day, sweetheart, but we should be getting back to the Supertramp.”

“Right.” Her lips to formed a self satisfied smirk.


	2. jar of hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She doesn’t feel bad about expanding his animal menagerie. Nothing says "Conner Kent" like a fluffy puppy, after all.

“I’ll take good care of her,” Conner vowed, cradling the squirmy puppy close to his chest. They were practically married already. Artemis was only slightly disappointed Wolf wasn’t there to scrutinize the newcomer. As much as the big wolf liked to pretend he was hot shit, he’d go gagga for a little fuzzball like the puppy.

Or he’d eat it.

Whatever. Artemis was just happy to be rid of it. She liked dogs more than cats, but that puppy was teething and Superboy had invulnerable fingers. Artemis, who resented her fingers being reduced to chew toys, would probably slap on a few Garfield band aids when she got home. (They were a present from Jade, ironic and pragmatic.)

“You better, Conner Kent,” Artemis curled her arms over her chest, staring hard at him. He liked to mope around, pretending he hadn’t grown AT ALL since they first met, but he was actually still a maddening two inches taller than her. (And she’d gone through another little growth spurt last summer.) Adopting strays always bolstered her rage monster’s spirits. And Conner was specially trained for taking care of all kinds of weird animals. (Case and point: Gar). So Conner was good for the puppy and puppy was good for Conner. Everyone wins.

“I _will_ ,” Conner’s tone was just south of an earnest whine. Artemis stopped her amused snort before it gave her away.

“Alright...” she sighed heavily, looking toward the Zeta Tube. “I’m gonna go now. I’m trusting you, Connie.”

“It’s Conner.”

“I know.”

“You just like annoying me.”

“Blame Robin. His hobbies are contagious,” Artemis grinned widely in the face of Conner’s thinned lips. She could hear the phantom echo of Robin’s cackle overhead. With him being him, he probably was zeroed in with his Bat-Radar or something.

“So I’m a hobby now.” Conner was getting good at pretending to be hurt, but not good enough to fool her.

“Goodbye, Con _ner_.”

“‘Bye.”

“Recognized, Artemis, B-06.”

Her body was on autopilot on her trip home, her muscles coiling and propelling her over the gaps between rooftops. The path was well worn into her body’s memory, so she had plenty of time to turn over today’s mission in her mind. Straightforward snatch and grab, her, Robin, and Superboy. They had broken into a LexCorps branch in Star City to borrow some of Luthor’s shipping record to cross reference with some Cobra Venom outbreaks. She glossed over the logistics. All she had been doing was playing the eye in the sky, directing Superhunk and the Midget Wonder around security patrols.

After they were in the clear, Robin had asked her why she was walking him and Superboy back to the Zeta Tube. After all-

_“Artemis, don’t you live in Star City?”_

_She did not like his slanted little smirk. At all. “Uh, yeah. I live here. In Star City. Why?” Hopefully that sounded more convincing than it felt._

_“Well you’re walking towards the Zeta Tubes. There’s really no need; Debrief is tomorrow.” Dick favored her with an oily smile. “Unless... your cousin in Gotham has another spelling bee scheduled?” Conner glanced perplexedly at her over Robin’s head, but, thankfully, made no comment._

_“No! Uh, no, no. She gave up the whole spelling bee thing,” she shrugged, lengthening her strides. Conner matched her change of pace easily, but Robin- him of short legs and too many quips- was practically skipping to keep up. “Too many trust fund babies sniffing around.”_

_“Aw, guess I won’t be seeing you around Gotham anymore then. Me and the other ‘trust fund babies’ will M-I-S-S you, ‘Mis.” Little moron didn’t miss a beat. And now she couldn’t_ not _contradict him, or he’d be super suspicious if he caught her lurking around her house. She had to patrol Gotham sometime._

_“Well maybe not, I think she was just saying that to say it,” she amended, biting her lip, if only to keep from clenching her fists. She chanced a glance at Conner. His eyebrows were in danger of flying off his forehead. Apparently she was that terrible of a bullshitter. Damn. “I mean, she said she didn’t want to do it, but I don’t think she was one hundred percent sure.”_

_“C-O-O-L.”_

_“Spell out one more word, Robin, I dare you.”_

_“Nah, I’m good.”_

She was so caught up in her tangle of thoughts that she almost missed it. Her crooked smile slid off her face, replaced by a wary look. Yet another folded flower was sitting on her windowsill. She lost count of how many she’d gotten over the past two years, but she always seemed to get one JUST when she’d forgotten about them.

Plucking it carefully between her fingertips, she climbed through her window, pulling off her cowl as she went. She sat in full gear on her bed, staring at the confounding little trinket with a puzzled expression. She didn’t exactly like having a secret admirer. It was kind of creepy. Even though the messages were sweet. But they could be from a fifty three year old man child, for all she knew. But then, since when did gross old men have such nice handwriting?

**_You’re just as beautiful when you’re angry as when you’re happy, but I like you happy best._ **

Despite her precautions, she felt herself smile. Damn. Artemis reached beneath her bed and pulled out a clear jar, brushing the thin film of dust from the lid as she opened it. And just like all the flowers that came before it, she dropped it into the jar, where it lay with the others. For a few seconds, she allowed herself to smile at the jewel colored paper petals. It was stupid to get smilely over a few paper folds and pretty words, but she couldn’t help it. She pulled a few random flowers from the depths of the jar, just to re-read them, her toes curling in her boots.

**_have a good day_ **

**_You’re not just gr8, you’re gr9!_ **

Then she sealed the jar tight and pushed back under her bed.


End file.
